AudioQuest Niagara 5000 Low-Z Power

AudioQuest Niagara 5000 

Low-Z Power | noise dissipation system

The science of alternating current supply is not easy; it requires concentration, and the devil is in the details. In fact, the proliferation of radio signals in the air and over AC power lines, combined with overtaxed supply lines and ever-increasing demands for high-definition audio/video components, has made AC power supply a somewhat outdated technology for our utilities.

For alternating current (AC), we rely on a centuries-old technology for incandescent lamps and electric motors - a technology that was certainly never intended to power the sophisticated analog and digital circuits of today's premium audio / video systems. To properly deliver on the promise of today's ever-increasing bandwidth and dynamic range, we must achieve exceptionally low noise over a very wide frequency range.

In addition, today's power amplifiers are taxed for immediate peak power demand, even when operated at modest volumes. Although the dynamics of much of our audio software have increased significantly, the speakers we use to reproduce them are often no more efficient than they were two to four decades ago. This places high demands on the power supply to an amplifier and the AC power source that supplies it.

The sensitive components of our systems require better AC power - a fact that has led to a variety of topologies for AC conditioning, isolation transformer, regeneration amplifier and battery backup system. Through differential sample testing and spectrum analysis, it can be shown that up to a third of a high-resolution (low-level) audio signal can be lost, masked or severely distorted by the enormous noise levels along the AC power lines that feed our components. This noise is coupled into the signal circuitry as current noise and by AC ground, permanently distorting and/or masking the source signal.

Given the high level of commitment, any sincere attempts to solve this problem must be welcomed.

Once the audio / video signal is gone, it is gone forever...

For AudioQuest, acknowledging the source never means merely using high quality "audiophile parts" or proprietary technology - common approaches in our community. For years we've all witnessed the same seemingly endless audiophile debates: valves versus transistors; analog versus digital; can cables really make a difference?; and on and on. We too can brag about our many unique technologies, but we recognize that true audio/video optimization is never a matter of secret or exotic circuitry. When it comes to noise filtering for AC, many approaches can produce meaningful results. However, these approaches can also cause ringing, current compression and non-linear distortion that can make the cure worse than the disease!

The Niagara 5000 features our patented AC ground noise reduction, the industry's broadest bandwidth linearized AC filter, and our unique passive/active transient power correction circuitry. The Niagara 5000 has an instantaneous current reservoir with a peak power of over 90 amps and is designed specifically for today's power amplifiers. Many AC products with "high current sockets" only minimize current compression. The Niagara 5000 corrects it.

While it's easy to promote a particular technology, it's quite another to create a solution that is consistent, holistic, functional and verifiable. It's not enough to reduce AC line noise and associated distortion in just one octave, leaving neighboring octaves and octave partials susceptible to noise, resonance peaks or inadequate noise suppression. Consistency is the key. We should never accept superior resolution in one octave only to suffer from masking effects at half an octave away and artifacts ringing two octaves away. This is the main criterion for AudioQuest's Low-Z Power Noise Dissipation System.

The Niagara 5000 represents over 20 years of extensive research and proven AC products designed for audiophiles, broadcast engineers and professional audio applications. Every imaginable detail has been addressed: In the Niagara 5000 you'll find optimized high-frequency conduction direction, condenser inlet molding technologies developed by Jet Propulsion Laboratories and NASA, and AC inlet and outlet contacts with strong silver plating over extreme. Pure copper to ensure the tightest possible grip.

A great system is built on a solid foundation, and that foundation starts with power. With an AudioQuest Niagara 5000, you'll experience for the first time the clarity, dimensionality, frequency expansion, dynamic contrast and grip your system has always been able to deliver - if only the performance was right!

We welcome you to experience the Niagara 5000 and hear first-hand the remarkable results of highly optimized power management: amazingly deep silence, breathtaking dynamic freedom, superb ambient cue recall and great separation between instruments and musicians in space. Once you experience it, it may seem so elegant, logical and obvious that you wonder why it hasn't been done before.

Specifications

• Transient Power Correction: 90 amp peak. Provides a current memory for each power amplifier (up to 25 ms)
• Stage X ultra-linear noise dissipation technology: More than 23 octaves of differential filtering (3 kHz - 1 GHz over 24 dB reduction) and 16 octaves of common mode filtering (20 kHz - 100 MHz over 30 dB reduction) with linear response optimized for different line and load impedances
• Patented ground noise dissipation. (All sockets): 6 banks of directional floor noise dissipation
• Non-sacrificial surge protection: withstands multiple AC peaks and spikes up to 6000 V / 3000 A without damage - sound non-invasive
• Maximum RMS input current: 20 amps (RMS)
• Sales outlets: Source (8); high current (4)
• Dimensions: 17.5" W x 5.24" H x 17.2" D (3U rack kits optional)
• Weight: 18 kg

Features

• COMMON MODE NOISE DISSIPATION NIAGARA 5000
• Common Mode Noise Derivation: Over 30 dB from 20 kHz to 100 MHz, linearized for dynamic (rising) line impedance with frequency (source) and 10 to 50 ohm load, depending on system current.
• NIAGARA 5000 OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION
• Overvoltage protection: Non-sacrificial (nothing to damage during repeated 6000V / 3000A input overvoltage tests, which are the maximum that can be survived by the AC switchboard of a building).
• NIAGARA 5000 EXTREME VOLTAGE SHUTDOWN
• Extreme voltage cut-off voltage: 140 VAC (activates the main high-current relay to open in less than 0.25 seconds; resets automatically when the incoming power supply is within a safe range)